3 ms·

That's right. So I see a lot of mechatronics students that actually, instead of trying to develop all their skills, settle in either electronics or software dev

That's right. So I see a lot of mechatronics students that actually, instead of trying to develop all their skills, settle in either electronics or software development. Students should understand that what they learn at uni is as far from real world product development as possible. Uni does not have incompetent coworkers, unreasonable, conflicting or entirely missing requirements, scaling issues, vendors trying to screw you, procurement processes trying their best to prevent you from doing anything, faulty materials, etc. Knowing a bunch of mechanic formulas or software development patterns does not an engineer make.

Animats 6y ago
Uni does not have incompetent coworkers, unreasonable, conflicting or entirely missing requirements, scaling issues, vendors trying to screw you, procurement processes trying their best to prevent you from doing anything, faulty materials, etc. MIT students have complained, after graduation, of finding companies that worked like soap operas.
- CarbyAu 6y ago
  I suspect it is the same everywhere. At Uni you are taught many things including "things NOT to do"; some seeming quite obvious. I thought: "Well, I shouldn't encounter those "things NOT to do" in the Real World TM, because professionals in the workplace have had 10 years to learn these lessons." Ah, the naivety of youth... Professionals are just people who convince someone to pay them for what they do. What they do doesn't have to include competence.
Animats 6y ago
Now, here's a good project for someone into mechatronics. There are many videos of machines for making N95 masks on Youtube. Watch them, and try to design a better one. Things to note: - They're all running at a rather leisurely pace, about 1 mask per second. That's very slow for a simple low-cost product. Compare textile machinery, progressive stamping presses, bottle making machines, and printing equipment. That's probably because demand for these things wasn't high until recently, and nobody designed a high-speed machine. - The bottleneck seems to be attaching the elastic loops. The rest of the process is all roll to roll and could easily be 3x as fast. Is there some better way to do that? - Can you get wider rolls of the source materials and build machines that make more masks at a time? - At the output end, most machines just dump the finished masks into a bin. That loses order and count. They then need a separate packaging operation. They come out of the machine in a consistent position and orientation, which can be exploited. A better machine would put 10 or 20 masks put into a printed poly bag and heat-seal the bag. Then it would drop the bag into a waiting cardboard carton. When the carton is full, switch to a new carton. The filled carton gets a shipping label and rolls down a roller conveyor headed for shipping. Compare [1], an N95 mask making machine, and [2], a paper cup making machine. The paper cup machine is doing a tougher job at 5x the speed. It has a flying paster, like a big printing press, so you can change rolls without a shutdown. The cups are shot out through a pneumatic tube to the cup stacking and packaging machine. That's why paper cups are so cheap. [1] https://youtu.be/SdCBKB4DhdA https://youtu.be/SdCBKB4DhdA [2] https://youtu.be/x3Vx5y0Yg3Q https://youtu.be/x3Vx5y0Yg3Q

Animats 6y ago

Uni does not have incompetent coworkers, unreasonable, conflicting or entirely missing requirements, scaling issues, vendors trying to screw you, procurement processes trying their best to prevent you from doing anything, faulty materials, etc. MIT students have complained, after graduation, of finding companies that worked like soap operas.

CarbyAu 6y ago
I suspect it is the same everywhere. At Uni you are taught many things including "things NOT to do"; some seeming quite obvious. I thought: "Well, I shouldn't encounter those "things NOT to do" in the Real World TM, because professionals in the workplace have had 10 years to learn these lessons." Ah, the naivety of youth... Professionals are just people who convince someone to pay them for what they do. What they do doesn't have to include competence.

Animats 6y ago

Now, here's a good project for someone into mechatronics. There are many videos of machines for making N95 masks on Youtube. Watch them, and try to design a better one. Things to note: - They're all running at a rather leisurely pace, about 1 mask per second. That's very slow for a simple low-cost product. Compare textile machinery, progressive stamping presses, bottle making machines, and printing equipment. That's probably because demand for these things wasn't high until recently, and nobody designed a high-speed machine. - The bottleneck seems to be attaching the elastic loops. The rest of the process is all roll to roll and could easily be 3x as fast. Is there some better way to do that? - Can you get wider rolls of the source materials and build machines that make more masks at a time? - At the output end, most machines just dump the finished masks into a bin. That loses order and count. They then need a separate packaging operation. They come out of the machine in a consistent position and orientation, which can be exploited. A better machine would put 10 or 20 masks put into a printed poly bag and heat-seal the bag. Then it would drop the bag into a waiting cardboard carton. When the carton is full, switch to a new carton. The filled carton gets a shipping label and rolls down a roller conveyor headed for shipping. Compare [1], an N95 mask making machine, and [2], a paper cup making machine. The paper cup machine is doing a tougher job at 5x the speed. It has a flying paster, like a big printing press, so you can change rolls without a shutdown. The cups are shot out through a pneumatic tube to the cup stacking and packaging machine. That's why paper cups are so cheap. [1] https://youtu.be/SdCBKB4DhdA https://youtu.be/SdCBKB4DhdA [2] https://youtu.be/x3Vx5y0Yg3Q https://youtu.be/x3Vx5y0Yg3Q